Untitled Sermon

WHAT DO YOU LOVE?

In your mind, answer this QUESTION

Other than God, His word, and a person, what would you say you love?

What in your life, given the opportunity, would you place before other things.

Think for a minute of all the things we say we love……

I love Pizza……

I love the beach……the mountains…….

I love to watch _________

I love to listen too_________

These are all superficial……….

but we also say, I love my daughter, or son, family and they are my highest priority……

Sometimes the THINGS we love get in the way, distract us, interrupt our direction,

they interfere with our conversation/prayer with the Lord.

I found out a couple weeks ago that something that I really liked, probably had moved into the category of "loved."

The thing I like a lot is AM Football, I really like it, even if my team is not playing, I like to watch it. I will plan my schedule around a football game.

Last Sunday my team was playing, and it was for the Championship, if we win it would be two years in a row. It would be the beginning of a dynasty. Dinastía

I had been anticipating the game for two weeks, I was listening, reading, and watching videos about the game to be played.

I was so excited for the game, and then it was played, and my team played very bad, not just a little bad, but very bad, it was embarrassing.

I went to bed that night with my adrenaline flowing and my mind spinning, playing the game over and over in my head, I could not sleep, the next morning as I tried to do my quiet time, in came thoughts of the game again,

I could not pray.

I know this story is a little dramatic, and not important, but it is true, and it is embarrassing to share,

yet, I know, I am not alone in this, we all do it in our own ways.

Think a minute about the things in your life that can captivate your mind,

your time,

your schedule,

your money.

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The last couple of times we talked, we talked about prayer. For many Christians the subject of prayer is a source of guilt, because they do not get around to it,

For others it is an emergency button, they only use when they are in trouble.

For some people it is part of a spiritual tradition that has been done so many times they do not knowing why they do it, it is not meaningful, or personal, it is dead, it is ritual.

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From the very beginning prayer was a part of life, we see God walking with Adam and Even in the garden, talking, and fellowshipping.

The whole old testament is a conversation with God, there is always dialog going on between God and His people.

In the New Testament we see God send His son to speak directly to us. Prayer is talking.

Throughout scripture we are told to pray, we see the benefits of it,

yet, praying for many of us hard, so many things get in the way.

As good Christians we try over and over again.

Is this all there is?

Is this the way it should be?

PRAYER IS NOT DOING IT IS BEING, being in fellowship with what you love, the one you love.

All the religions of the world except Christianity

tell us that in order to be saved we need to do this ritual or that duty…… be a nice person, do good works, you have to pay off your sin

Even in Christianity today, those not strong in the word add things to salvation,

"to be save you need to" pray, go to church, be baptize this way or that,

To tithe, teach Sunday school, be holy, speak in tongues,………

they add religious qualifications to salvation.

While these things can be good and a part of God's plan

they are not what saves us,

WHAT DOES SAVE US?

Ephesians reminds us that

2:1 And WHEN you were dead in the trespasses and sins

2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

2:8 For by grace HE SAVED US you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

WE ARE SAVED BY HIS LOVE, MERCY, AND GRACE ALONE!

There is nothing that we can do to attain this, not tradition, no ritual, NOTHING.

Only respond to His love,

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So, why should we pray?

It is really not that we should,

but that we will PRAY.

Salvation and the things we do for, or with God are

CAUSE AND EFFECT

It is cause (GOD) and effect (RESPONSE).

He acts in love / we respond

Ephesians continues

2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

GOD CAUSED: He saved us & He created us for good works,

THE EFFECT: We walk in those good works,

not so that we will be saved,

but because we are saved.

The effect is not a mechanical response,

but a genuine response of love, gratitude, and passionate desire to know the Father.

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In reality

WE DO WHAT WE LOVE!

God new this from the very beginning, he tried to tell us

DT 6:1 “Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it,

2 that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long.

DT 6:4-5 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

14 You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you—

15 for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God jealousy is an emotional response, one of the heart, not of logic. —lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

THE FATHER IS TELLING US

THIS WHOLE THING IS ABOUT LOVE BETWEEN

YOU AND ME!

Have you ever been in a relationship were you loved the other person more than they did you?

It is awful….you have all these incredible feelings of love for someone and they don't feel that way towards you.

For me it is the emptiest of all feelings, to love from the deepest part of me

and for that love not to be returned is devastating.

God is saying I love you,

love me!

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What did Jesus say….

Mark 12:28–34 The Great Commandment

28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”

29 Jesus answered,

“The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

John 21:15–19 (ESV): Jesus and Peter

Three times Jesus asks Peter "do you love me" Do you love me with a self giving love? A love that you would die for?

If so " Then feed my sheep"

This is the beginning of the call to start His church……it is a call of Love, self giving love.

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Love & THE CHURCH

Eph 5

28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,

30 because we are members of his body.

31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

Revelation 3:14–17 To the Church in Laodicea

14 “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.

15 “ ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!

16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

Luke 14:26 If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

LOVE HIM MORE - LOVE HIM FIRST

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Lastly - SOS is a picture of Christ and the Church

Song of Solomon 1:15 - HIM

Behold, you are beautiful, my love;

behold, you are beautiful;

your eyes are doves.

SHE

Song of Solomon 1:16 - HER

Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful.

Our couch is green;

Their love is green and lush growing producing fruit………

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WOW!

NOW THAT IS A QUIET TIME!

Responding to the Lord is not about good works or even obedience

it is a

Response and relationship of loveSelf giving / Life giving lovePassionate life with Him!

WE ARE TO LOVE HIM MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE!!!!